M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Shyamalan, known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-American film director, screenwriter, producer and occasional actor known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots. His major films include the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense, the superhero drama thriller Unbreakable, the science fiction thriller Signs, the psychological thriller The Village, the fantasy thriller Lady in the Water, the natural thriller The Happening, the fantasy adventure film The Last Airbender, the sci-fi action-adventure film After Earth, the found-footage horror film...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth6 August 1970
CityMahe, India
CountryUnited States of America
I always thought I was going to be the film guy until I died.
I love The Killing, I love Homeland and Mad Men, all those shows that lean into the tone of things.
I want to make a bunch of small movies. I'm really interested in that for me in the future.
I wouldn't describe myself as a do-gooder. That's really more my wife. I'm kind of just the obsessed guy who's been writing and making movies since I was a little kid, just in a room and make it.
Great actors come with depth about how their character sees the world, and they completely defend it. They could defend it in a court of law, down to the reason the patient deserved this.
A TV show where all of the characters are trying to figure out what's going on, and the suspense of that, fits my [voice] really well. You feel their frustration, anger and fear, and then, when the reveal happens, their sense of dread or horror, or whatever it is, and I like to paint with those colors.
I consider myself an independent filmmaker.
You don't want to watch classics with me 'cause I'm constantly writing notes.
Most of the time, I don't watch classics with anybody. I have to be by myself. That's my classroom.
Filmmakers have to find the right materials to match their [voice].
The whole world makes comic book movies now.
The muscles that writers need for film are very different from TV muscles. Now, when I hire the writers and put the writers' room together, I know where their muscles need to be.
I'm from that world where I feel so comfortable making small independent movies.
You don't have your film finished when you have your director's cut finished. It's just a bunch of green screen.